The kids in Rukban camp

03.08.2019 - 19:41

When the house is ruined and there's nowhere to go, you'll be happy to any lair. But it's better to live in a field or ask for charity than to be in Rukban camp with children.

At the beginning of August, there were more than 18,000 people living there, most of them children. The living conditions do not meet the most basic sanitary standards. People live in dilapidated shacks without water and electricity.

Cavity pits are dug out and simply covered with tarpaulin after filling. And this is in the summer heat. As a result, infectious and skin diseases have become widespread in the Rukban camp. Children are particularly suffered. How desperate are the mothers who cannot help a sick children. After all, there is no medical care or elementary medicines in the camp. We are not even talking about children's routine vaccinations.

Although, according to all international laws, the state that organized the camp (the U.S. organized Rukban) is obliged to provide the residents of the camp with basic living conditions and medical care.

On Wednesday, 31 July, a small group of refugees managed to leave this hell. First of all, they were fed in temporary accommodation and examined by doctors. Almost all children showed signs of measles and leishmaniasis..

Amina Saheem, the mother of 5 children, agreed to tell the story of the conditions in the Rukban camp.

She said that sanitary conditions in the camp are deteriorating day by day. She lived there with 15 other people, along with her children. Infectious and skin diseases are widespread due to the fact that unsanitary conditions are prevalent throughout the camp.

Almost everyone has scabies. Three of her children died of illness in three years. Two other children she could leave out the camp, but four-month-old Amina’s daughter (her father left the camp with the militants just over a year ago, and Amina does not know where he is now) suffers from a severe form of leishmaniasis.

According to Amina, children's skin diseases have become more and more common among children aged 6 months to 3 years. Parents of healthy children are in fear of the spread of the disease, and drive sick children and their parents away to cesspools.

10 years ago Syria has not known such diseases as measles, leishmaniasis, dermatitis and psoriasis. The inhumane living conditions in the Rukban camp have made these diseases commonplace.